8. Surface Obs and Plotting

Surface Data

The most basic of atmospheric measurements started at the surface. Before the advent of instruments like the thermometer and barometer (yes; there were times when we didn’t have these basic instruments), people recorded whether the weather was warm or cold. Unfortunately, humans can only detect a minimum change in temperature of around 5°F. Since we live on Earth’s surface, it is easiest to get our measurements there. But the more important question may be, what variables are important and why?

What do you think are the most important surface variables and why?

A goal for every meteorologist is to be able to explain the variations in atmospheric parameters that we observe. In this section we will focus on the surface variables and their spatial variation. There are many variables that are important and we have to somehow get all of them plotted on a single map, for multiple stations. Doing so will benefit a meteorologist immensely because there will be a wealth of information literally at their fingertips. The following section describes how we can compactly write the surface data in a concise format on a weather map.